


Through a Drawer

by channilingus



Category: Naruto
Genre: Implied/Referenced Drug Use, M/M, Soulmates, Spiritual, Supernatural - Freeform, Suspense, alternative universe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-16
Updated: 2017-10-27
Packaged: 2018-08-14 11:27:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 14,889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8011834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/channilingus/pseuds/channilingus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>*originally posted on ff.net under username IroncladChanning* - ABANDONED THERE</p><p>"The page is covered in a handwriting he recognizes as not his, the letters are jerky and slanted. The words are disturbing to read yet, he can’t stop himself from reading these secret thoughts.<br/>‘I have something inside me.’ It read. ‘It takes over when I am weak. I am told I am sick. I am told I am different. Yes, is all I can say. I am different. I am different because my peers want to silence this thing inside, but I want to let it out. I want it to be free. I want to be free. Does this make me the monster?’<br/>He picks up a pen and writes down on the bottom of the page in his boxy, clear style.<br/>‘Who is the real prisoner here?’"</p><p>The Great Mother blessed the world by bearing two half-human sons, Himura and Hagoromo, thus giving humans God-like power. Hundreds of years later and The Great Mother no longer walks the earth. Her Descendants fight among each other with no love or trust between the clans. Naruto just wants to live his life normally and not be so angst-y all the time but Sasuke can't let him.</p><p>10/16/2017 - This story has been re-written and is not the same. Please start from the beginning</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. One

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
> 
> This is an AU and therefore non-canon compliant. You could probably consider this a high school AU but their age/school is not the main focus in this fanfic therefore I do not consider it so. Please expect characters to be "Out of Character" and for this story to have a mixture of cultures not native to the original story. This is my first solid attempt at a multi-chapter fic. Please read and review!

Our love is dead but without limit,

Like the surface of the moon,

Or the land between here and the mountains.

Well it is not these hiding spaces that have kept us innocent,

But the way you taught me to just let it all go by.

 

* * *

 

He wasn’t sure if he was perpetually experiencing an existential crisis or if the world was out to get him. It seemed far too dramatic but then he was his mother’s only child so it wouldn’t be a stretch to assume he would share many of her traits; such as her love for drama. Either way he was positive he was stuck in Hell.

Hell was a modest house with a small yard, sharing a shallow alley with rows of houses that all looked the same, so close he could potentially sneeze and accidently spray germs directly onto the neighbor’s brick siding from the window in their new living room. Rows of houses covered the area for the next 6 blocks in all directions, pocketed with small corner stores and the occasional barber or pawn shop. The Academy was located to the north, heading towards the cliffs that loomed high above the stacked office buildings located in the downtown area. Everything was a bit too close in this place, crammed between a dense forest and a mighty stone wall. Hell was remarkably claustrophobic.

Ever since moving into their new home he had felt slightly despondent. Even that wasn’t quite true though, he knew no other way to describe it. He had a permanent twinge in the corner of his eye that tricked his peripheral vision and sent nerves shivering down his spine. He felt as though he was watching himself twitch from across the room. This was the worst he had felt in a long time.

The heat in the attic was suffocating. Naruto reached for the cord hanging from the ceiling only to find there was no bulb in the socket. He pulled out his phone, turned on the flashlight, and looked around the dark, dank crawl space. Dust was around an inch deep and there was only a narrow path of plywood for him to move around upon, least he wanted to walk on support beams and insulation. To the far side sat the only object in the attic, a desk.

“How does it look son?” Minato shouted from below.

“I don't see any critters, just an old desk.” He hollered over his shoulder. It was rather plain looking with only a few drawers, covered in grime and cobwebs, but it looked solid and showed minimum signs of wear. It appeared to have been left here for years, unperturbed. He felt kindred to the nondescript piece of furniture, like he too could be left in a sweltering attic, lost in a sea of brick and mortar, and find peace in his solitude.

Great Mother of Ninshu, when had he become so dramatic? He wasn’t sure why he started wanting his solitude, or when this sense of impending doom first surfaced in his mind, but he knew he was not acting like he used to. He used to be cheerful. He used to be excitable. Now, he felt moody, always slightly irritated.

Naruto jumped a little when he felt a hand clasp his shoulder having not heard anyone approaching from behind. “Hey, this thing is in pretty good shape. Didn’t you want to get desk? What do you think about this one?” Minato asked.

Naruto gave the desk a once over and shrugged in response. “Whatever.”

With some awkward handling down the rickety attic stairs and a few stubbed toes later, Minato and Naruto had the desk situated under the window in Naruto’s room. Naruto’s window looked out to their tiny back yard that was surrounded by a low brick wall, inclosing in a tiny strip of brown grass and beyond that the small alleyway. At least it wasn’t facing the neighbor’s house, like the living room window was.

“Whew!” Minato exclaimed, wiping his brow with his forearm. “We can go buy a chair later, I’m going to help your mother unpack the kitchen. If I call in pizza do you want the usual?”

Naruto shrugged again and shifted his eyes towards the ground, lacking the energy to hide his melancholy behind his family’s trademark enthusiasm. “Yeah.”

Minato placed his hand back on Naruto’s shoulder and softly squeezed until he looked up. “Cheer up buddy. Three more years and you’re in college! Which means the next time you pack up you’ll be going wherever you want to, right?” Minato smiled his mega-watt grin and gave his son a nookie which earned him a disgruntled _‘dadddd!’_ and his hand being swatted away.

If only that was what was causing Naruto’s mood maybe it would have been easier to get out of his funk. Naruto wasn’t sure.

“Now get this room unpacked! I expect you to help me get the holiday decorations in the attic by the end of the day.”

“Yeah, yeah…” Naruto agreed with a pout on his face.

He allowed himself to work on autopilot for the remainder of the day. He found comfort in the mechanical practice of organizing his belongings, feeling like he was discovering lost treasures folded inside the crinkled newspaper. If you had told him years ago he would enjoy organizing, he probably would have had some choice words for you. If you had told him he’d lose his cheer, he might of rose to the challenge. Now he wasn’t sure who that kid was. As he lined his bookshelf with copies of his family’s sacred scrolls and Coptic bound scriptures he tried to push his depressive thoughts out of his mind. He instead thought about his religion and his family’s ties to the earth. He attempted to ground himself to a mystical reality that he had been raised to believe as truth. His mother claimed they were Descendants of the Great Mother herself, not that Naruto would know anything about that, but lately when he meditated he could relieve some of this tension in his soul so for that reason alone he would continue to attempt to find solace in the Great Mother. He would try because that was all he could do.

The sun was low in the sky when his mother took post against his doorframe. She pursed her lips and nodded her head while surveying his new room. “Looking good.”

He arched his hand behind his head and gave a nervous laugh. “Eh, thanks ma.”

Kushina took in her son, standing in the middle of crinkled paper and half empty boxes with a slouch in his shoulder. She felt as if all the fears she encountered when finding out she was with child were slowing coming true. There was a fear that she couldn’t voice, that she had refused to address, but that she knew was taking root every day that Naruto aged. She didn’t know how to protect him then and she was even more confused on how to do it now. It wasn’t like modern medicine could fix his afflictions, this she knew as fact. But what should they do?

“So…I’ve been thinking.” She began.

Naruto groaned loudly and dropped his head. He was seriously over entertaining his mother’s thoughts. ‘Maybe you should go outside and get fresh air’ or ‘Why don’t you go try to make friends?’ or ‘Would you like us to look at some team sports to try out here?’ Why couldn’t see understand, this wasn’t basic depression he was experiencing?

“You stop that! I just think that—” She reprimanded him for his disrespectful noise.

“Don’t.” He interrupts. “Just…don’t think about it ma.”

She stomped her foot down, her fist clenched by her sides. This is how it had been recently between them, both quick to anger. He used to get along so well with his mother. If this was a cartoon there be flames in her eyes. “Don’t interrupt me young man! I’m your mother it’s my job to worry about you. Who is going to do it if I don’t? When you cam—”

“SHUT UP! Don’t say it!”

They both stare at each other, shocked that their tempers had risen so fast. There was a tense silence that stretched between the two of them as the younger waited for his elder to put him in his place, but when Kushina finally spoke her voice was low and even. She was at odds on how to deal with her teenage son. Her attempts at hiding her feelings was about as fruitful as Naruto’s attempts to control his own. It would have hurt less if she had yelled it back in his face, he realized.

“There is nothing wrong with being who you are, Naruto. The Great Mother blessed you. You should be proud.”

…..

_The page is covered in a handwriting he recognizes as not his, the letters are jerky and slanted. The words are disturbing to read yet, he can’t stop himself from reading these secret thoughts._

_‘I have something inside me.’ It read. ‘It takes over when I am weak. I am told I am sick. I am told I am different. Yes, is all I can say. I am different. I am different because my peers want to silence this thing inside, but I want to let it out. I want it to be free. I want to be free. Does this make me the monster?’_

_The page went on to detail many common herbs said to heighten the senses, each one with a side effect written next to it, many crossed out. ‘Slept for 16 hours,’ one said. ‘Tried to stab mother,’ another said._

_He picks up a pen and writes down on the bottom of the page in his boxy, clear style._

_‘Who is the real prisoner here?’_

…..

The underground shrine had been in the family since the First Arrival of The Great Mother. The Uchiha had once been a large clan, vocal of their pedigree, devout followers of Ninshu, and this shrine was said to have been the location of many gatherings of the Clans of the Six Paths. As the generations had past the bloodlines of The Descendants had weakened. Warring between the clans had caused two to become extinct and another to adapt nomadic traits further weakening their bloodline. What once was considered the Mark of the Gods, two opposite powers that when combined brought growth and prosperity, now cursed the unfortunate bodies that housed the souls of the first children of The Great Mother. Trial and tribulation had proven that with great power came great calamity, and the vile acts between The Descendants had wreaked havoc on the Two Halves.

Itachi has always been a smart man, quiet, with quick wit, and a Samaritan heart. The Uchihas had rejoiced as he had aged to prove to be a loyal and passionate future head of the clan. There had been hopeful rumors that he would be the next Uchiha to carry the curse, because who else would be better fit to stop it than the outrageously intelligent boy that Itachi was becoming?

To the clan’s dismay, the curse did not manifest in Itachi.

Less than a handful of people knew where Itachi had hidden his brother. The flip side of the Uchiha’s proud nature was the accessibility of knowledge that could be used against the curse-bearer. Pride had been their downfall, because as their boasts became louder, the targets on their backs grew. His parents had worked endlessly to cover Sasuke’s disposition once his true nature has begun to take over his earthly body, as would have been done for anyone of the clan who had come to bear the curse.

It has been a year since his parent’s murder and he was still no closer to saving his little brother. Each hour that past brought him a little close to the end and he had to work that much harder to control the feelings of desperation that attempted to overcome his psyche and threaten all his work. He had to stay calm and figure out the answer or he feared that this awakening would be the last for the Uchiha Clan.

Itachi knew he had a few options. He was ruthless in his search for more information, using all available channels to gather sacred clan texts from all The Descendants. He had poured over old volumes to save his brother from the seemingly inevitable outcome; death. He didn’t know the answers yet, but he felt it looming just beyond his reach, like if he was able to stretch just a little further his fingertips would connect with the means to an end.

Itachi lifted the towel that had been laid across his brother's face to observe the slit that was developing upon Sasuke’s forehead. He looked down at his brother’s eyes. Sasuke’s brow was furrowed, his eyes were open but glazed over and unfocused. The irises shifted rapidly, unblinking. Occasionally the Hyuuga priest would drop medicine into the erratic moving orbs to keep them from drying out. Long again they found there was no way to keep the cursed clan member’s eyes closed while his soul searched for its other half. The towel had been soaked in herbs and healing water, blessed by the Head of the Hyuuga clan, and was used to slow down the awakening of Sasuke’s third eye and to protect his Sharingan. According to previous accounts, once the third eye was awoken Sasuke’s body would no longer resort to slumber. At all cost, Itachi had to keep the potential destruction at bay.

He knew he was running out of time.

…..

“My name is Naruto Namikaze, it’s nice to meet you.” Naruto introduced himself, smiling hard the way his father does, for the 3rd time today, his fists shoved far down into his front pockets. Just one more class and he would be done with the first day of torture. He looked around the room and noticed that a few of the faces seemed familiar. At least some of the kids were in more than one of his classes, he hoped this meant he could try to make acquaintances with them. His mind argued with itself if that was a good thing or not. Surely, he wanted to make friends, right? It was hard coming to the high school in the middle of his sophomore year.

“Naruto moved here from Kiri. Make sure to welcome him kindly. Naruto, you can take the empty seat over there.” The teacher waved in the direction of an empty desk towards the back left of the class, far away from the door but close to the window. Not the best seat in the house, but it was better than the front. He would have preferred to not be there at all but that was not an argument he would ever win against his mother. As Naruto moved towards the desk he picked up the mumbled sentences of his classmates, most of them staring wide-eyed and cupping their hands over their mouths as he walk by to make sure he couldn’t pick up on their words while others stared hard, judgement clear on their faces. Few paid no attention to him at all, face either straight ahead or hunched over work laid out on their desks.

Naruto sighed loudly as he plopped down into the seat, ignoring the chatter while simultaneously wishing bodily harm upon the clueless gossiping teenagers. The teacher called attention to the class and started the lesson for the day. Naruto had to force himself to pay attention and write notes although he had already studied the topic at his old high school. His parents were controlling enough that one peep of truancy would result in worlds of pain and suffering until his mother’s wrath was tamed. After moving so frequently, Naruto had stopped trying to make friends and focused on making his parents happy. This was another drastic change to his personality that had been developing over the last few years. Where once he used to make friends with whomever he met, now he struggled was the severe lack of want or care that peppered his everyday life. His parents just seemed more important, after all they were the ones who were always there for him while every attempt at friendship ended with the same slow death caused by distance. He may had made a lot of friends as a younger being, but he didn’t have any now.

Years ago, he decided to stick to himself, and that’s what he planned to do.

…..

_‘If you do not find me soon we both die’ was written over and over across 4 pages of the notebook, frantic and scrawling like it has been written in a panic or possibly a trance._

_‘How do I find something trapped inside myself?’ He wrote back then threw the notebook across the room._

_The next morning, the notebook sat back on top the desk._

_….._

Shikaku stood behind his only son, the two of them watching the deer out in the distance wondering the forest behind their home.

 _‘He bares the sun mark of the Two Halves.’_ Shikamaru spoke in a tone that was close to a whisper, while not speaking at all. The Nara mind could be equated to a traffic jam if all the Nara misused it. His father nodded.

 _‘And of the other Half?’_ Shikaku prompted.

 _‘Nothing. The clan moved him after his parent’s death. His brother nor the Hyuuga priest have been seen either.’_ Shikamaru answered, half attentive as he effortlessly swept his conscious through the shadows, allowing it to be led by the deer, flowing like water spilling over rocks, gentle and broad. A long silence stretched between the two shadow-dwellers as they searched for their wards.

 _‘The Hyuuga plan something evil.’_ Shikaku stated. It was Shikamaru’s time to nod.

“What is the earth without the sun and the moon?” Shikaku asked at length, this time speaking as a human would.

“Hell.” Shikamaru answered. They both look up to the unusually large moon. Time was not on their side and for the first time Shikamaru realizes just how impossible their task was.

…..

Naruto watched as his mother went through the familiar ritual with poised reverence. She lit the nine candles which had been clustered together on the low table that the family had used as their alter for as long as Naruto could remember. They had waited for the night of the first full moon in their new home before performing the Rite of Offering.

The family sat with their legs tucked under them, palms together, facing true North. The window that the altar sat below had the curtains pulled back and the moon sat high in the sky, casting its glow in conjunction with the candles that his mother lit while reciting the prayer. It was the only window at the front of their thin home, located in his parent’s study. It looked out onto the crammed streets, the street light casting a slight haze into the darken room. The matriarch sat a bundle of dried rosemary that had been cut from the same plant that had been given to his mother on the day of her wedding into the ceremonial dish and lit the nine candles. Every movement was made with measured deliberation.

“Oh Great Mother, we present our whole-- body and soul-- so that we may give thanks to the many teachings of Ninshu. We offer the flame of the sun, the harvest of the earth, and the shadow of the moon. May our mortal eyes guide us in the present so that we may live in truth and harmony with all living things. By way of the Namikaze, children of the Uzumaki, we honor the Six Paths. Pando.”

Kushina ended the prayer by slicing the tip of her pointer finger and drawing the Uzumaki crest in blood upon the window. As she finished Naruto grabbed the rosemary and held it over the flames of each nine candles before laying it back into the ceramic offering dish. His father waited until Naruto was done then blew the candles out.

They sat in silence for a moment while the smoke of the rosemary dispelled in the room. The offering dish would be left with the ashes of the rosemary plant until the next full moon, then returned to the earth during the Rite of Rooting in which the family would begin their Ninshu garden.

The Rite of Offering was not finished until the matriarch released the family, they all took the time to gaze at the moon, it’s presence dominating the window and intimidating in its size. Minato watched as his wife stared into the distance, her eyes vacant, looking past her family’s crest drawn in her blood on the window. He knew what was going on in her head. It had been the plague in his thoughts too.

The moon was too large.

Without preamble Kushina spoke. “Naruto, it's bed time.”

…..

_‘I love you because I am you, I realize._

_You are a part of me, and when I allow you to become me I am more of myself than when I am only me._

_Does that make sense? I am not sure what is sense anymore. I wake up in my body but I do things I do not understand. I find thoughts written in my journals that do not belong to me. I find rituals in my room that are not of my family. They look familiar and something tells me they are mine but I do not recollect doing them._

_But I love you. I love you. Please free me from this limbo, please take me where my heart tells me to go but my body can’t find. You tell me to find you, but…’_

…..

“You're Namikaze, right?”

Naruto looked up from his book to the brown hair boy standing in front of him. “Yeah. What’s up?”

The brown-haired boy sighed, looked around like he is already bored with the conversation, and said “Are you related to Minato Namikaze?”

Confused, Naruto hesitated before answering in the affirmative. “He is my dad.”

The boy nodded a few times while still looking around the room. Only when he settled his eyes back on Naruto did the thought occur that maybe he was looking for something. “My name is Shikamaru Nara. We have Advanced Global History together. Supposedly our dads know each other or something. There aren’t a lot of sophomores in the Advanced program so…” Shikamaru shrugged and let his sentence trail off.

Naruto forced his big grin on his face, the one he knew people saw as warm and inviting, and responded, “Ah! I see, I was starting to think my dad was lying about growing up here since no one has come around to welcome him back.”

Something sparks in Shikamaru’s eyes that Naruto wanted to identify as understanding although he wasn’t sure. The gleam continued as Shikamaru pulled out the seat across from Naruto and sunk into it. “Say, you don’t happen to play strategy games, do you?”

…..

_“You tell me you can’t find me, but I can feel myself when I am you. I know I am here, a here that is the same here as when I am you. I am different than you, we are not the same although we must share something. If we are the same then why can you not feel the pull I feel when I am you?”_

…..

 

“The periods of time he is here and he isn't here are getting shorter. It's getting worse.” Kushina tugged on her long red hair and worried her bottom lip between her teeth.

“We should have never—”

“Don’t say that!” she interrupted.

“How could we have known it would be passed on to him?” Minato was prompted as he watched as his wife paced listlessly around their bedroom.

“...You know I ask The Great Mother every day. I just want him…” She continued then broke off. The knowledge of what was happening to her only child was too much to bare, even knowing her faith in Ninshu was unwavering. The Great Mother was testing her faith and in these moments, she couldn't decide if she worshiped a loving or an unforgiving God.

“We should of never ran.”

She stopped her pacing in front of him to give him a bone chilling glare.

“Don’t do that Kushina.” He was keeping his voice calm and his eyes as soft as he could while he watched his wife get angrier at an alarming rate. “It’s only chance that we are back here now and look at what it’s doing to his mind and body. Even if we continued to avoid Konoha we both know his condition has been steadily getting worse. At least here there are—”

“I don’t need you to patronize me, Minato.” She cut him off again. “I’ve dealt with the clans much longer than you have. I know how this whole thing works. I’ve witnessed the destruction caused by the Two Halves. The Uchiha are a mad, deceitful, vial clan. I don’t need you to tell me what we did right or wrong. I stand by protecting my son.”

Minato grabbed her hand and kissed her knuckles. He kept his head lowered as any man who was raised in a Ninshu family knew to do when questioning a matriarch. “I’m grateful for every day I wake up next to you and every moment we have Naruto here as the symbol of our love.” He lowered his forehead to her knuckles. “Kushina, I beg you, we must give a little or we will lose him. We have to put faith in the power of The Great Mother.”

“Giving him over to the Uchiha Clan is a death sentence.”

“How is he not dying now?” He looked up demurely. They stared into each other’s eyes, each searching for the strength needed to save their only son.

“It doesn’t have to be the Uchiha. The Nara are here—”

“They are not true Descen—”

“That's the point!” He interrupted, unintentionally, but also unable to control his outburst. “And if they cannot help there is always the Hyuuga.” He squeezed her hand in his, threading his fingers through hers, willing her to allow them to seek help for Naruto.

“I think we both can agree that the last place we will seek help is from them.” She spat.

…..

_‘I must stay true to me.’ The slanted response read._

_‘YOU ARE A COWARD.’_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you would like to beta for me, please let me know.
> 
> If you notice any grammar or spelling errors, please specify where they are so I may fix them.


	2. Two

But please return, return

To the person that you were

And I will do the same

Because it is too hard to belong to someone that is gone.

My compass spins,

The wilderness remains.

* * *

 

 

It was a rare evening that Itachi allowed himself to venture above ground. Many people who sought to find the Uchiha’s had special abilities that allowed tracking down gifted chakra-welders a task done with ease. If not for the tsukuyomi that he had cloaked the forested area with, he would have been found in seconds by the Nara or worse… and actual enemy. The Eye of Truth was both a blessing and a curse.

Although the standing relationship between the Uchiha Clan and the Nara Clan had been strained for over some-odd thousands of years, Itachi bore no ill-will towards the shadow-dwellers. In fact, he found the story of their creation intriguing and always felt a small twinge in the back of his mind that if he could just figure out what the curse meant, the Nara would be of use. The Great Mother had created the Nara Clan with a purpose, one that could not be fulfilled by the current state of the Descendent clans. This of course was only intuition, he could never find scriptures that supported his thoughts therefore he had yet to be able to clear the Nara name in the eyes of the Uchiha clan.

He thought about the clans and the problems between them. The main issue with the Naras was that although their clan was in all the ancient texts and had been created and revered by The Great Mother, they were not a direct descendent of The Great Mother and therefore had always been viewed as lesser beings in the eyes of the Six Paths. Each of the great six clans, the Six Paths, could tie their ancestry back to The Great Mother’s two sons and all possessed partial elements of The Great Mother herself. The Nara, or the Five Shadows as they were referred to in the old literature, were a mystical creation of The Great Mother but not a psychical manifestation of her like the Six Paths were.

When she first came to this world she had eyes that could see the truth, the sharingan, eyes that could see fate, the rinnegan, and eyes that could see depth, the byakugan, but she lacked the eyes of the present, the only eyes that humans possessed. Being a God, she lacked human qualities and failed in her attempts to bring an end to the calamity that threatened the planet she had been called to because of the non-belief harbored in the humans. She had felt the pain and turmoil the earth felt, the energy was fractured and weak, but the humans and their squabbling was a foreign concept. The influx of negative energy caused the pull of the sun to waver and caused the moon to wobble during its rotation creating catastrophes. She knew that to save the doomed human race she would have to take in human qualities and bridge the gap, she had to make the heathens see light by first becoming a heathen.

Depending on which clan’s history you read, the story differs here. Some say she took two human embryos from different human women and placed them in herself, others say she fell in love with a human man, and even another stated she ate two humans and gave birth to two sons, but all agree that she bore two half-human sons and stabilized the sun and the moon by binding the souls of her sons for eternity to the two elements thus create a harmonious flow between the two extremes. Together the sons balanced the planet, saved harvests, cured draughts and famine, and finally brought unity to the world.

The world was a happy place, but only for a limited amount of time. As all humans do, her sons choose partners and sired children, thus the Clans of the Six Paths was created. Her son, Hagoromo, the sun, passed his traits first to the Otsutsuki clan, which later branched to the Senju and the Uzumaki. The other son, Himura, the moon, passed his traits to the Kaguya clan, which then became the Hyuuga and the Uchiha clans.

As the clans grew and God-like power was passed through the generations, The Great Mother, sensing that far too many of the naturally sinful qualities of humans was being breed into her descendants, knew that she must do something or one of the many deathly vices of the humans would abolish her work. Jealousy ranged between the children of the different clans; some being consumed by gluttony and pride while other were being consumed by lust and greed. They plotted against each other, trying to steal bloodline qualities that had not been passed down to them.

She knew that to eradicate these natural dispositions of the human traits she would have to utilize a force that was not human. Only then could she ensure that they remained loyal to the earth, the sun, and the moon. It is said she pondered and watched her world. She sought advice from the Three Elements. She watched her children share the wealth of nature, she watched them advance technology, she watched them stabilize civilizations, and she watched humans take these advancements and turn them against one another. She watched the Otsutsuki clan be annihilated by the Kaguya clan. She watched Hagoromo struggle with punishing his main family after their inhumane treatment of their branch members. She watched cousins kill cousins.

It is written in the Book of Nara that The Great Mother spent many decades searching for the answer to this moral dilemma.

One day, as The Great Mother was wondering a densely-forested area like she often did so she could observe how her ecosystem was prospering, she happened upon a dying deer. The deer had an arrow through its chest and a thin trickle of blood slowly pooling beneath it, it’s breathing labored. The dear looked to The Great Mother as she approached but showed no fear. It stared at her thorough beady black eyes, then laid its head back on the forest floor, awaiting its final moments.

“My child,” The Great Mother spoke to the deer. “It appears you suffer from the gluttony of the humans, much like I fear.”

The deer did not response quickly, but at lengths it gave it’s reply. “The hunters kill regardless of the season and for sport. My body will waste away, my child inside me will die before ever experiencing life, we will both return to this earth where our energy will be absorbed and distributed to others. The suffering I feel now serves the greater purpose, but my kind has no hope against human arrows and we fear for the continuation of our own.”

“Humans are heathens by nature. They harbor the ability to obtain everything but perceive only a little. Their eyes blind them to all but the present.” The Great Mother knelt before the deer and gently caressed its face, dragging her hand down its neck and nearing the entrance of the wound. The deer let out a long sigh, as if releasing a large amount of tension from one’s body.

“Great Mother, you are the earth and your sons are the moon and the sun. But the moon and the sun casts shadows on the earth. The shadows are where you see what the humans want to hide.” The deer heaved and coughed, blood ran from its mouth.

“What are you called?” The Great Mother asked.

“Nara.”

“Nara, you speak with wisdom that I do not possess. You will be my eyes in the shadows from henceforth. You will die in this spot today and from your body your offspring will emerge. This offspring will appear to be human but will lack human constraints. They will use the shadows and your kind to see the true intentions of the humans. They will be one with nature and all the life it harbors. They will be responsible to keep the Six Paths from ending each other, and they will guide the bearers of the Two Halves.”

It is written that the deer took its final breath and closed its eyes, eased into death with the gentle help of the merciful Great Mother. Its body took on an ethereal glow for four days, in which The Great Mother returned daily to perform rituals.

On the first day, she surrounded the carcass with a variety of wild flowers and every type of herb she could find within a 10-mile radius of the fallen deer. This period would be mimicked by clans and would become known as the Rite of Offering, the purpose being to invite The Great Mother into their homestead and to offer her the symbolic family herb.

On the second day, the plants had taken root around and through Nara’s body. She decorated the body in swirling swatches of bright colors, all created from the plants that grew from the sacred soil the body laid upon. This would become known as the Rite of Rooting and would mark the beginning of a Ninshu Garden in a new homestead.

The third day marked the arrival of the all the deer and all the members of the Six Paths, for they had heard in the whispers in their mind to appear and they addressed the call. Nara’s body had absorbed the brightly color paste that had decorated it the day before and the body was withering much like the natural progression of decomposition, it’s stomach bloating. The ritual that started from this had been lost to the age of time, and Itachi could find nothing to hint as to why.

On the fourth day, when the sun breached the horizon and the first rays of morning reached Nara’s body, a loud crack sounded throughout the forest. From the ribs of the deer rose a child who appeared close to puberty.

The Great Mother declared the beginning of the Nara clan and it is written that she promptly sunk into the earth, never to been seen physically again. From there the story get weirder, and that is what concerned Itachi the most. There is no documentation of what happened to The Great Mother after the creation of the Nara Clan, but it is suggested that after splitting her power into so many different forms, The Great Mother became too weak to hold human form. Some clans suspected foul play by the Nara and almost all Six Paths immediately rejected the Five Shadows.

The Nara did not keep scriptures like the other clans did. The Book of Nara was short and only documented the birth of the clan, nothing more and it is noted in many other’s scriptures that the Nara are a lazy, useless, group. The Nara were known for their non-verbal communication amongst each other and feared for their ability to see and understand a situation regardless of the words and actions of the humans. Although it was never explicitly stated, it appeared their minds networked together and worked as one entity.

The Uchiha had hated the Nara from the very beginning, although the Nara were only a small clan and did not possess as many god-like abilities as the Two Halves, the Uchiha carried the sharingan and feared the Nara would want to possess the power of the eye of truth which had the ability to copy and replicate all things in space and time as well as show you all possible choices one could make. From what Itachi could gather, the Nara had never attempted to take power from any of the Clans of the Six Paths.

But yet, he felt the need to hide his brother from the Nara. Why, he couldn’t help but ask himself. Wasn’t the Nara created as the guide for the Two Halves? The answer was simple enough, it was because he had yet to find out who cursed the Two Halves after The Great Mother stopped walking the earth. It was all too convenient for the Nara Clan that she ceased to exist once they began.

There just wasn’t enough information to make a confident decision, so Itachi watched the moon grow larger and considered his next step.

…..

_‘Less you and more me. If you can’t do this, then I will. You claim you are the monster and I believe you are right. You seek comfort in me, you confine to me, you lie to me. But do you think about what is happening to me? I can’t remember the last time I saw my own face._

_I am a person. I have an identity. I am not you. My name is…’_

…..

Sasuke awoke with a violent start, his arms and legs thrashed in the sheets and his heart hammered in his chest. He didn’t have to look around the room to know he wasn’t in his own. His whole life he had been experiencing waking in someone else’s room... in someone else’s mind. The thrust into another’s psyche never lost its ability to make him feel ill.

He checked his palm to see which mark had manifested on his skin. Another confirmation that he was not in his own body. Not that he needed the confirmation. He just knew. He didn’t need to look in a mirror to be able to describe the face that would be looking back at him. A face so much different than his own that he had vomited the first time he had seen it’s reflection. The shock had been unbearable.

He couldn’t tell you how. He was sixteen years old, and from his earliest memory the experience of these vivid dreams always seemed so real. He didn’t allow himself to call them anything else other than dreams, although he knew that was a lie. He truly didn’t know how, but right now he knew things were different than any other time before. Call it intuition if you want, but he knew for the first time ever that he had woken up as this other boy in his own town.

He was in Konoha. _His body was in Konoha_.

Sasuke has had a lot of experience— so to say-- with out-of-body experiences. He couldn’t tell you the first time it happened but the feeling was so ingrained in his soul that it is second nature to his mind. The realization that he was in his town was like a direct punch to his gut, it caused him to gasp and momentarily lose his functions to think.

It sunk in as a solid weight at the bottom of his stomach, how much he knew this room while only having fleeting knowledge of its existence in dream-like suspension. The decorations had steadily changed over the years he had been an unexpected visitor; movie posters that changed to sports idles, random pictures that cropped up in confusing sequence, a bookshelf that uses to hold picture books and comics now held school books, novels, and sacred Ninshu literature of the Uzumaki variation. He would feel a pang of longing when he thumbed the familiar religious stacks. The only difference between his copies and these was the clan name that was the focus of the ancient texts, though he imagined if he took the time to read them he might find other discrepancies.

He felt the pang of jealousy and the thick tendrils of loneliness that grasped at his being. He knew not to seek out the other inhabitants of this house. They always seem to know _he was not as he appeared_ and the matriarch knew the rinnegan was an effective means to cause him to be cast from the body, which always threw Sasuke back into the eternal, cold and lonely, darkness. Sometimes he would seek it out. Sometimes he wanted to go back into the white noise, suspended between some type of space-time loop with only his solitude to comfort him. It was easier to only care about oneself when you can’t hear or see or feel anyone else. What would someone else know about what he is going through? There was no living person who would know, and meeting that one that might had meant curtain death for the last 6 generations of the curse-bearers.

Harogomo’s curse. He balled his fist so hard he cut little crescent shapes into the circle mark on his palm with his nails.

When the pressure in his chest became too much he moved out of the room and into the living quarters of the family he was all to uncomfortably familiar with. It was night and the home was still, all inhabitants asleep. He walked to the window that called his attention, even though he didn’t understand how it called to him. The moonlight was his only guide in the new space and at the window he observed the Uzumaki crest painted in dried flakey blood on the pane. He sneered.

Sasuke summoned his sharingan, and lit the nine candles that sat on the altar under the window with one sweeping glance. He offered the prayer of his clan to The Great Mother so she could guide him in his quest to be made one with his earthly body once again. Sometimes he faltered in his beliefs, cursed his family’s name, but in these moment trapped in another’s body he found relief in knowing the common thread of Ninshu. In these moments of extreme confusion, he would allow his heart to overflow with his love for The Great Mother.

Although he was cursed by the religion he loved, it was undeniable that Ninshu was real and should be taken seriously and respected. So, he paid his respects.

He knelt before the altar, his body folded in the way that allowed his forehead to lay on the floor palms flat and elbows out and low near his face. He whispered, “Please forgive the Uchiha. Pando.”

He blew out the candles with a single breath and released his sharingan.

He surveyed the rest of the small home, noting the different quartz and crystals that had been sat in the window sills of the common areas. Each facing a different nautical direction, meaning a different thing, all for protection, good health, prosperous harvest, and to avert negative energy. He allowed a slight smile to grace his borrowed face. His mother would be proud at how clearly this family was dedicated to the teaching of Ninshu.

Long ago he had observed that the matriarch in the family must have been gifted rosemary during her Rite of Wedlock, he noted at least one plant in every room he walked into. His own mother had been gifted geraniums at hers. For a transient moment, he allowed the memory of the strong fragrance to assault his senses. It was a smell most people considered too strong, but it comforted Sasuke and reminded him of times before he had become trapped in the void.

Maybe he should wake one of the occupants so they could cast his away and he could stop feeling sorry for himself by removing the ability to feel at all?

Sasuke shook his head to clear his thought and went back to the bedroom he had awoken in. He took a seat at the drab desk and steeped his fingers in front of his face, dissecting what he knew as fact, what he had been taught in his life as a follower of a Ninshu and as a member of the Uchiha clan, cross referenced what he had been subjected to in his dreams, then he compartmentalized everything into bite size realities.

He knew he bore the Curse of Hagoromo. He knew he was going to die. He knew from what little research he had been able to complete before his had lost connection to his earthly body told him that the reincarnation of Hagoromo ran through the bloodline of the Uzumaki but there was no information about their reincarnations or what happened to them in the Uchiha literature, so he could find no other reason for him to continuously wake in an Uzumaki’s body other than this was the boy that would eventually kill him. The reincarnation of Himura had followed the Uchiha blood for six generations, the death of all six clan-members were well documented and Sasuke had read them at length. No one knew what happened to the cursed members of Ninshu, why they were cursed, or how to stop it. He did not know what The Great Mother had in store for him or if she just had a sick sense of humor and got off on killing her children. Not much else was known about the curse and it frankly pissed him off. His eyes unfocused as they stared out of the window, turning these thoughts over and over in his head.

It was a while before his dazed senses settled on a dark patch of shadows that seem to grow steadily denser between the homes across the street. When realization hit, a plan immediately started to form.

How could he have forgotten?

He beckoned his Sharingan again and searched the blackened area. His red eyes showed him the figures that caused the shadows to deepen; the golden beady eyed, long nosed, tiny eared, gentle bodied beasts. They moved with grace in the night through the woods in plain sight of the humans who could see the shadows but could not make out the depth of them.

The all-seeing animal ruled by the Nara clan. The deer. The protectors of The Descendants. The Five Shadows. Golden eyes stared back into blood red. Understanding swept through Sasuke.

He may hate the Nara’s, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t above using them for his own gain.

…..

_‘If we had meet under different circumstances, I think we could have been friends. I have many friends that are like you, like the same thing as you, say the same dumb things as you. I never treated them like friends… now I spend a lot of time thinking of the bonds I did not work to strengthen. What do they think about me now? Do they know I am not me anymore? Is there someone walking around in my body like I am walking around in someone else’s body? Do they know that that is not me?’_

…..

Shisui was getting ready to take off his pants when he felt the sensation. The left side of his body twitch and his fingers faltered halfway through slipping the button from the slit in the fabric. It was not normal chakra call which happened all the time. Regular humans put them off without even realizing what they did. High emotions can easily create a chakra call, and all Uchiha were specifically sensitive to chakra calls so they were heavily trained in the art of ignoring meaningless chakra signals.

This one was not meaningless.

The woman on the bed reached out and removed his still hands from his pants. “Let me help you, love.”

Her voice was sultry and she looked up to him under heavily charcoaled eyes. He wasn’t paying her any mind though. He pushed her hands from his clothes and went to the window closest the where the chakra call had originated, throwing up the blinds in haste.

Through the red of his eyes he saw the beacon like a disturbing slash through the dark sky. It was an Uchiha distress signal, used only for the most extreme cases of emergency. Only a sharingan could see the beacon but everyone with even the slightest bit of chakra sensitivity would be able to feel it. Millions of people in Konoha would be experiencing the fine hairs on their skin standing straight up. The more superstitious might even say that a ghost had walked through them. All the Uchiha would know the truth.

He waited for the message to begin. Five quick blinks. Two 6 second pulses. Four quick blinks. Three 6 second pulses. The beacon disappeared for 10 seconds then the call started again. Five blinks, two six second pulses, four blinks, three six second pulses.

He didn’t wait for the repetition again, he cursed loudly and ran out the room, ignoring the woman calling after him, “Hey! Wait! You paid for an hour! Where are you going?”

He wasn’t supposed to flicker in front of humans, but he figured that Itachi would forgive him for it this time.

~~~

Itachi was waiting within the shrine when Shisui appeared in the room. Shisui called it flickering, but Itachi knew it was a pale imitation of the Senju’s teleportation abilities. Shisui was just a very skilled sprinter, so fast it looked like teleportation. Still, it was impressive for an Uchiha.

He waited calmly for his most trusted clan member to tell him what he saw outside the tsukuyomi. He had almost not let Shisui leave that evening and now he was grateful that he had. He didn’t always like the choices the older man made, but he respected him and Shisui had never failed him nor his clan and he was proud to know that not even Shisui’s physical desires would stop him from completed the duties of being an Uchiha.

Itachi hadn’t seen it but he knew what a Uchiha chakra call felt like and with almost the entire clan within the tsukuyomi since the attack, there was very limited people that could have set it off.

He wouldn’t allow himself premature elation, that only lead to disappointment. He allowed nothing to show that the chakra call had been Uchiha, least someone other than Uchiha picked up on it as well.

Shisui took no time rushing towards Itachi, only acknowledging the Hyuuga priest in the room with the vaguest of glances towards the direction of Sasuke’s cot under the massive stone Uchiha crest. Shisui had been rather vocal about his distrust of the Hyuuga, but the rest of the clan didn’t share his opinion and Itachi knew the Hyuuga’s medicines were the best, so Itachi had listened and then instructed Shisui to not repeat his grievances.

Shisui had obeyed, if only for when there was not additional audience in the room.

He came directly up to Itachi and gave the appropriate bow meant for the clan leader. Itachi still had not gotten use to his friends having to show a different level of respect than what he grew up with.

Shisui stood up, looked directly into Itachi’s eyes and summoned his sharingan. He showed Itachi the signal instead of telling him which was a non-verbal way to tell the priest he wasn’t welcomed. Itachi ignored the face of the prostitute the memory began with and focused on the beacon.

His heart caught in his throat and a rare smile, more intimidating than happy, appeared on his lips.

…..

_‘Everyone will know when I am gone. I will not go silent.’_

_‘I won’t let them forget us.’_

_….._

Naruto caught Shikamaru as they shuffled out of class, easily falling towards the back of the stream of students with the nonchalant boy who had casually hooked his book bag on his shoulder and stuffed his free hand in his back pocket.

"You look like shit." Shikamaru said although he didn't even glance at the blonde-haired boy.

"Thanks man." Naruto tried to stop the nervous fidget but still ended up with his hand on the back of his head.

Naruto had been debating this conversation now for over a week. On one side, he had a feeling Shikamaru could help him get what he needed, he didn't seem like the gossiping type and had grown up in Konoha so he had to know someone who had what Naruto was looking for. Naruto wasn't positive but he had noticed that Shikamaru had the Nara crest on a few of his belongings, the same Nara crest that was the symbol of the Five Shadows in Ninshu, so that eased Naruto's mind about being judged.

Ninshu believers were earthly people, they believed in the power of the sun, the moon, and the earth. One worshiped these as the Three Elements. Although other religions did not believe in the powers that the earth provided, Ninshu practitioners commonly turned to plants and herbs to cure ailments and to perform Rites and Rituals. It was said that the Nara was the wisest of them all when it came to the many uses of herbs. On the other side, he could be wrong, Shikamaru could have nothing to do with Ninshu and would probably judge him for what he needed. The thought had kept Naruto from asking him earlier but after waking up from sleepwalking the day before, he knew he couldn't put aside the need any longer.

He waited until they had gotten into the quad before he stopped the other boy.

"Yo, I got a favor to ask of you. I need…I feel like you are someone that I can trust." He pushed his finger into the darkening ring of his palm to center his thoughts and remind himself why he was talking, keeping his hands low so not to draw attention to them.

Shikamaru tilted his head slowly, miming an inquisitive dog. Naruto watched as he moved his tongue from one side of his mouth to the other behind closed lips as though contemplating advanced math equations. The pause was uncomfortably long and when Naruto opened his mouth to tell Shikamaru to forget it a long sigh came from the dark-haired boy and then he was answered. "Yeah man. I got you. But in return I think you need to heed a warning."

"Wha--" Naruto's face immediately soured, unable to hide confusion.

"Not like that.” Shikamaru interrupted and waved him off. He dropped his voice and moved closer to Naruto so he could say, “Make sure no one here knows your mother is an Uzumaki."

…..

The Hguuya clans cared little for the world outside of Ninshu. They were more reclusive than the Uchiha, who regularly entered society for education and work, and they were more ritualistic than the Uzumaki, who constantly lose their possessions, their artifacts, and their scriptures because they were constantly moving and leaving everything behind. The Hyuuga were definitely better than the three extinct clans, Otsutsuki, Kaguya, and the Senju; what kind of Gods allowed themselves to be wiped out? Weak ones, Neji knew. Yes, the Hguuya would have to be the most responsible of the Six Paths if Ninshu would continue.

He allowed his nostril to twitch with disgust for only a mere second before schooling his face to be as blank as his milky eyes. All the Hguuya were born with no sight, they were blessed by The Great Mother by not being subjected to the eye of present. The most useless sight anyone could possible possess. What good was the eye of the present if you could see chakra? Many of the branch family never possessed the byakugan which developed in those chosen a few years after birth. They never left the temples and were subservient to the main branch, all of which would gain their byakugan.

Neji had been special being one of the few branch members that possessed the eyes of the depth. His father had it too but his mother was blind and he was raised around many other blind Hyuuga until his eyes developed and the clan leader moved him into the main house. He was still treated like a servant-- how else was a branch member meant to be treated? -- but at least he knew he was blessed. At least he had his sight. At least he was a Hyuuga.

He would do all he could for The Great Mother and for his clan. Tests are meant to be completed and what were tests if they were not a challenge?

He glanced down at the sweaty, disgusting, body of the second son of the Uchiha clan leader. What a useless life to try to keep alive. He couldn’t actually _see_ the boy, he was just an awful mix of untamable chakra that did not function the same way all other’s chakra worked.  Chakra normally followed structured channels in consistent paths through the body but Neji could _smell_ the sweat and see the disruption that caused the Uchiha’s chakra to not act like anyone’s and it repulsed him.

If the Curse of Hagoromo had occurred in the Hyuuga clan he knew they would have purged it relentlessly. It wasn’t uncommon for a completely incompetent branch child to be abandoned beyond the clan’s gate, left the starve since it wasn’t even capable of the most remedial of tasks expected to be handled by the youth.  A sacrifice wasn’t a sacrifice if it wasn’t a hard decision and all hard decisions yielded great results. Progress was not possible without results, and that is why the Hyuuga thrive while the other clans of the Six Paths stumbled, struggled, and died. The Uchiha’s inability to sever the ties to their weakness was the reason they were being killed by their own kind. They allowed this upon themselves, therefore Neji felt no pity for their loss.

He couldn’t believe this…this…pariah was considered stronger than him. This smelly sack of chaotic chakra was considered worth saving. The cursed Uchiha always ended up killing multiple members of their own clans once the darkness took them. Their eyes would change, the wheels of the sharingan would morph to something obscured and obtuse and a retched bastardization of a rinnegan, not a full pair, just one would open on their forehead. They would awaken from a deep comatose state to ravage everyone in their path. There was no way to stop them, just to hide and wait for the destruction to snuff itself.

The Cursed always kill themselves in the end after they find and kill the Other Half.

Really, when Neji thought of it, that was killing two birds with one stone. Uchiha and the Uzumaki. Good riddance, honestly. The Hyuuga were smart though, and that is why they help the Uchiha, and that is why he stays by this sad excuse of a Descendent and nurse him with Hyuuga clan medicines that prolong his life and settles his chakra and keeps him from killing everyone. It was two sided, he gathered data, information, he listened to the Uchiha and reported every back to his clan. All his notes were shared with the greatest detail to the small things that could possible help the Hyuuga get the sharingan. It would be in much better hands than with the Uchiha. They do not deserve it.

And regarding the Uzumaki’s true rinnegan? Well, the clan was going to just have to chalk that one up to a sacrifice. It was impossible to take a rinnegan from a Uzumaki since it did not manifest the way a byakugan did—permanently--nor did it manifest like a sharingan, that held the power within the orb itself; all you needed was the physical eye and one could possess the sharingan. No, the rinnegan was tied to something different, it could be called upon and then abandoned with no traces that the user even possesses the ability. It was impossible to steal it.

Truly, it was sad to lose such an important part of The Great Mother. But great results only occur after great sacrifices.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you would like to beta for me, please let me know.
> 
> If you notice any grammar or spelling errors, please specify where they are so I may fix them.


	3. Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm very much not happy with this chapter. Ugh.

And so we've learned to be as faithless  
Stand behind bulletproof glass  
Exchanging our affections through a drawer

 

 “Well, this isn’t good.” Tsunade said after getting zapped by a prick of lightening for the 3rd time.

Kushina was pacing nervously behind her, wringing her fingers.

“Can you break it?” She asked.

The air in the house was heavy, the electrical charge was palpable in the confided space. The change in atmosphere had caused Kushina to use a power that she hadn’t in many years and when she had released her rinnegan, the eyes of fate that had been given to the Uzumaki Clan by The Great Mother, she could see the dark essence hovering around her son’s room, she could see the layers of chains like lightening incasing the bedroom, she could see the beacon that could not be perceived by the eyes of the present, the eyes that all humans possessed. She could feel the fear like a lead weight telling her the Uchiha had marked her son and soon she would lose him if she didn’t get to the cursed Uchihas first.

“I’m not familiar with this specific ritual, but it’s definitely Uchiha like you thought and you were right to contact me immediately. It could take me a minute to figure out how to break it.” Tsunade answered, her hands manipulating the glowing light flowing from her fingers to slowly probe at the barrier.

“I knew we should have never come here.” Kushina replied. Tsunade spares her a look over her shoulder but doesn’t respond, only turns back to focus on her work. She knew when to pick her battles. Tsunade didn’t claim to know much, but she did know that running away never fixes a problem.

…..

_‘Tell me what the day was like today, I can’t remember the last time I walked while the sun was out. I never imagined I would miss something like that.’ He sighed and looked out the window._

_‘This journal should be titled, the Two Faces of Naruto.’ He had written._

_‘How many times must I tell you, I am not you. Idiot.’ Had been the response that showed up two nights later._

…..

Shikamaru knows he is trapped the minute he is and not a second before. Foolish, really, of him to have not been able to see the figure in his own shadows, but the Uchiha clan were a gifted group.

He had been observing the land like he ought to do. A new Nara was preparing to be birthed from their deer form and all the clan was in-tuned to the newcomer. It would be the first born in almost 50 years, the last being Shikamaru. There was never a more perfect time for a new Nara than when the Two Halves were in this state. Shikamaru had come to be after the death of a previous set. Life had been boring learning about the Ninshu and Nara history without their purpose being manifested.

Shikamaru was currently in a position that no Nara had been in since the beginning of the curse. He, unlike many before him, had figured out where the disconnect was. What was this vital piece of information that had been erased from Ninshu history?

Shikamaru knew. Now he just needed to make sure to keep the Two Halves alive long enough to tell them as well. But first he needed to find Sasuke’s body which had been hidden from the Nara by the Uchiha, and he already knew how he would do that as well.

The pride of the Uchiha would be the death of the Uchiha if something didn’t give. This is likely why he is so startled, so unprepared when they came to him, materializing out of his shadows, manipulating what he saw in his own domain in a way that he hadn’t noticed the change.

Thank the Great Mother that he wasn’t attempting to be their enemy. He wasn’t sure the Nara would survive and could only hope that the Uchiha was not here on unfriendly terms.

Two dark figures stepped into the brightly lit yard. Shikamaru recognized them, having watched this town from his porch for his whole existence as a Nara. Itachi took the lead with his right head man, Shisui closely behind him. Shikamaru, caught in Itachi’s eyes, could do nothing but watch them as they encroached on his home.

Itachi was only slightly taller than Shisui by an inch at most. He wore his black hair long and pulled into a loose ponytail at the nap of his neck. Years of being trained to be the future clan head had left stress lines on his face. Shikamaru was still able to see the young boy that Itachi had once been. Smart and kind. Docile yet fearless. Itachi had perfected the air of disinterest and authority as he had age. He had only taken over the clan a little over a year ago after suspicious circumstances had left his parents both dead, drowned by fluids in their lungs. Shikamaru had no way to tell who had killed Fugaku and Mikoto Uchiha since the clan leader always traditionally stayed behind a clocked veil in the Uchiha land. That was possibility why it was shocking to see Itachi now. Once his parents had been killed, Itachi had immediately drawn all the Uchiha clan members behind the veil, restricting both the coming and the goings of the various Uchiha families. Shikamaru never saw them in person, and rarely saw them in the shadows.

But he wasn’t completely foolish. He had seen the beacon. He should have figured it would only be a matter of time before he was visited by an Uchiha. Uchiha’s hated the Nara. They made every effort to be not seen by the shadows if possible, and it was very possible since the Uchiha could manipulate what an eye was capable of seeing.

Shisui made sense, but Itachi… Yes, Itachi was a pleasant surprise. Itachi visiting him meant he was breaking the silence between the Uchiha and the Nara clans.

When he spoke, Itachi opted to speak only through the connection he had created by trapping Shikamaru in his gaze.

“I believe we have a situation to discuss.”

…..

To say Naruto was stress would be the understatement of a lifetime. Not many things were bringing him comfort. The warning from Shikamaru had shocked him. Shikamaru hadn't expanded much on why Naruto shouldn't tell people his mother was an Uzumaki.

To Naruto's knowledge the family name was dying out rapidly. Like his mother's family, his family moved around a lot. Nomadic people were not exactly the easiest to schedule family reunions with so for all Naruto really cared the only family he had was his mother and father which he rarely thought twice about.  He had a bond with them that most kids his age just didn't with their parents. Being able to bond with someone else who's family was also practitioners of Ninshu was a relief in many ways as the religion was hastily becoming taboo.

Beyond helping Naruto with his request, the other day, they didn't do anything together outside of school. They saw each other in class mostly, Naruto having turned down Shikamaru's offer to join any school teams. Naruto liked it this way, after so many years of building friendships to only lose them again, he preferred a little bit of distance. He found himself only at ease around his parents. It had already been ingrained in his psyche by his parents that non-believers were dangerous to mingle with and after having so many problems establishing connections with his peers, he was inclined to agree.

But Shikamaru…he was a Nara. This had been confirmed by Shikamaru himself. He was safe, and Naruto found himself staring at his new friend whenever they were in the library together. Something pulled Naruto attention, like a metaphysical nudge he didn't quite understand – like the odd attraction of looking at an accident as you walk by the scene. It caused fear because Naruto did not understand his feelings.

Daily he struggled to keep reins on himself. When he was younger he was always chastised for reacting with little thought beyond what he felt was right or good. He had been brave and had a strong moral compass. He had gotten into many fist fights defending those around him that could not defend themselves. He had always had it easy making friends and never felt the need to exclude others. Now his mood constantly changed, more so than that of a normal teenager. It was like a whole different person came out from him. Traits he did not normally possess surfaced. He struggled to control thoughts of jealousy and melancholy he did not understand. He would feel a wave of intense possessiveness for family, a yearning to protect a brother he does not have. Sometimes his mind would tell him to _burn it all down_. In his mind, he was still trapped in Hell.

He wanted to seek guidance from Shikamaru but also strip him of all that his knows and loves within the same breath.

When Naruto walks into the front door of his home the first thing he notices is how immediately a heated conversation is dropped. He walks through the foyer and turns the corner to see who all was talking in the living room only to freeze.

His mother and father sat next to each other, his father appeared distraught and his mother appearing angry, with Auntie Tsunade across from them in the lounge chair, appearing hassled. There is an audible pause in the room, long enough for Naruto to take in all the faces looking at him.

In that moment, he realizes they know. They know he has lost the control of himself. They must know the mark is back they must want to drug him again.

The tension in the room reaches a fever pitch with this realization and before he can process fully what the presence of Tsunade means, his mind screams at him to run.

“Wait!” He ignores the hollers behind him.

…..

_‘My name is not Naruto.’_

_‘I believe you.’_

_‘Your beliefs are meaningless.’_

…..

The rain started shortly after he escaped the inevitable at home. He paid the weather no mind, his mind numb to the temperature of his body. His thighs were burning and his heart was racing when he finally stopped running.

It's dark, the rain clouds covering up the setting sun and the moon wasn’t yet capable of breaking through. He ran straight through town, past the tall buildings, the business district, and the barber shops. He didn’t stop until he had gone into the heavily wooded area that completely circled Konoha and stretched for miles away far away from the rows and rows of houses he was crammed into.

 He still felt claustrophobic.

All he could think about was being sedated. But he can’t be sedated he must be able to feel this. If he can’t feel this he won’t ever find what was causing this.

His parents did not want to find out. They wanted to push it under the rug. Ignore it. Drug him.

He took a seat against a large tree trunk and contemplated his next move. The darkness climbed between the branches of the tree and appeared to grow around the blonde, but he was caught in his head and didn’t notice. Arguing with himself. Slowly making himself madder.

Shikamaru stepped through the tree and stood over the hunched boy for a minute. He sighed loudly, once.

Twice.

“Yo.” He said, a little loudly when Naruto still had not noticed him.

Naruto jumped. “Shit! You scared me! Where do you get off on creeping up on people?” He covered his pounding chest with his hand and stared daggers at the other boy. Shikamaru stared back for a minute, then let out another large sigh.

“Why are you out here by yourself?” He asks, airing on the side of slightly annoyed. Naruto pouted and looks off in a different direction, turning his head from the other boy.

“Enjoying nature.” He replies slowly.

“Bothersome.” Shikamaru huffs again, mostly to himself. Why couldn’t humans just say what was on their minds? He shrugs his shoulders and spends a moment kicking dirty with his shoe. He didn’t mind the whole, seeing through the eyes of the deer and being able to control and move through shadows thing, but being a Nara meant a lot of work. All because the last of the Uzumaki’s decided to return to Konoha, he shouldn’t discount his luck, but couldn’t everyone take a chill pill and just _talk to eachother?_

He was glad, really, to be able to fulfill his purpose. His clan was small and they were people that aged slowly. Every quarter century The Great Mother turned another deer into a Nara at the time of its natural death. The clan was not aware of how The Great Mother decided on who would come back as a shadow-dweller and who was meant to continue in the natural process of energy regeneration. Their purpose was not meant to question her, but to be an extension of her.

He had become a Nara during a period of monumental shifts in the world when the souls of Himura and Hagoromo did not possess earthly bodies. He remembered the day the great floods stopped in the east, he remembered the feeling of the earth breathing and sighing in the way it always does but always goes unnoticed. He noticed that day, because it was saying, ‘Himura has returned.’

And that is when his job began.

Months later he heard the call again. ‘Hagoromo.’ This one was practically unnoticeable, like a fly buzzing in another room. He knew to listen but he knew the call was not for him. Whoever had received Hagoromo was far away.

Himura, however, quite literally shared a backyard with him. The Nara forest ran for approximately 15 acres before it met the Naga River. From the river on, for another 50 acres or so, was owned by the Uchiha. Even as a Nara it was hard to access the Uchiha’s land, who performed many rituals and maintained their land with the use of their Sharingan. Wonder into the wrong area in the Uchiha forest and you would likely become confused and disorientated. Even the deer couldn’t see through the reflective veil that the eye of the truth could casts.

Regardless, Shikamaru had grown up with Himura—whom he knew as Sasuke Uchiha. And now Hargoromo—no, Naruto Namikaze, was knocking on his doorstep. And better yet, Itachi had visited him. The Great Mother sure was good to those who wait.

“Can I come stay at your place tonight?” Naruto’s question pulled Shikamaru out of his thoughts.

Shikamaru responses by tilting his head and raising his chin. “Follow me.”

Naruto followed Shikamaru into the darkness, still paying no mind to how dense the forest was. The walk to the Nara house was short and Naruto’s sight was limited. Naruto focuses on staying close to Shikamaru although he was struggling to see him in the dark. Shikamaru moved with confidence and right as Naruto was positive he would lose Shikamaru, they broke through brush into a lit backyard.

The porch on the house was large and wrapped the whole building. The boys approached the house and when Shikamaru took a seat on a small wireframe chair, Naruto followed suit and sat on the porch steps. Both were quiet for a long period of time. Naruto clutched his hands together, lost in thought about what he should do next. He felt restless and listless. Shikamaru stared off into the woods, his face hidden by the cast of a sharp light.

In a low voice, so low Naruto was almost sure he wasn’t hearing anything at all, Shikamaru spoke. “It’s time we spoke candidly with each other Naruto.”

Naruto stayed quiet. He starts pulling items out of his pocket. A lighter. A small wooden pipe. A jar. He places the first two down next to him on the porch, but he holds the jar between his knees and twists it in the light, watching the herb as it slowly turned.

“How much do you know about that mark on your palm?”

Naruto clinched his fist around the jar, a grimace crossed his face. He goes from despondent to agitated in mere seconds and somewhere in the back of his head Naruto knows this isn’t right. He doesn’t want to answer, mainly because he didn’t know how to answer. It was wrong to question the Matriarch of the family, so he never did.

“I’m sick. I blackout frequently. I lose hours and days at a time.” Naruto whispers. Maybe if he says it low enough no one will hear and then he won’t have to admit he knows nothing at all. “I…My parents say I do strange activities during these periods of time. Like I’m possessed. Sometimes they say I go into a coma-like state, but never for long. Our family doctor has run extensive tests on me. They’ve settled for sedating me during bad episodes but… I don’t…”

Shikamaru palms his face. “What a bother.” He grumbles under his breath.

“Hey! You asked!” Naruto took the defensive.

Shikamaru turned to face Naruto, slowly. His face is the same, but his eyes appear darker, rounder, and beadier than Naruto has ever seen before. It takes a minute, but Naruto realizes the white of Shikamaru’s eyes is gone.

“Is that why you sought help to enhance your mental state?” Both boys look to the glass jar still in Naruto hand.

“You are a Descendant of The Great Mother and you mean to tell me you do not know the mark of the Two Halves?”

“The Two Halves?” Naruto opens his other hand and looks at the darkening circle in the middle of his palm. He clutches his fist again.

“That.” He shakes his head. “That can’t be it. Mother says that is a myth, spread by people who hate Ninshu.”

Shikamaru stands and for the first time Naruto truly notices how dark it is around him. He looks across the yard and can’t see anything beyond a few feet away, the whole area looks like an ink blot. Shikamaru’s face has harsh shadows hiding his features, the dark appeared to cradle his body.

“Lies will be the death of you if you keep believing them.”

It takes another moment for everything to sink in. Everything he learned about Ninshu. Exactly how isolated he is.

With every memory, every lesson learned, every scripture read, Naruto panics a little more. His heart beating in his ear grew louder and white spots blossomed in his sight. He feels the gravity crushing his chest, making it impossible to take a full breath. His lungs burn and fight to process the thick air around him.

He never thought the stories were real. Mother had always said there was only The Great Mother. The Two Halves was the works of non-believers attempting to discrete Ninshu. Why would a God bare half-god sons? Why wouldn’t she make them Gods, such as herself? He always believed her. Why wouldn’t he? Believing your mother was just what you do, something everyone does. He couldn’t believe out of all the religions popular in the world the crazy stories that he was a descendent of a God was true. Fairytales.

But if his mother lied about the Two Halves then what else did she lie about?

His eyes widen when the thought strikes him. The messages in his notebook.

Shikamaru watches him faint.

…..

_‘I WILL KILL YOU BEFORE YOU KILL ME.’ Was boldly written on the wall in blood. He felt sick. Did he write that?_

_The blood on his hands said; yes._

…..

“If you don’t do this, I will.”

Minato nods his head and Kushina sobs harder into his hands. “My boy. My baby boy. I’m losing him.”

Minato holds her tighter. Tsunade sat across from them, drinking tea meant to help chakra replenishment. She had almost killed herself while removing the shield that had incased Naruto’s bedroom. When they were finally able to get in, her stumbling forward through the doorway and Minato catching her fall, they were able to see the state of the room. The shield had created a false image of a clean bedroom. What they saw was shocking to the three.

The scriptures that Naruto kept on his shelf was torn apart, discarded pages ripped into shreds littered the floor. Other pages were tacked to the walls, large circles around passages, parts completely blacked out. Uchiha crests drawn in blood. Rambling, written on every surface in the First Language. Tsunade only knew a little of the First Language, keys words all Ninshu followers are taught, and what she read gave her a cold chill down her spine.

The rosemary pot, similar to all the ones located around the house, was smashed on the floor. A notebook was the only thing left on the desk under the window, which was left wide open, the wet night air was slightly brisk.

Tsunade had walked to the notebook, read what was left on the page, and immediately knew she couldn’t do this alone.

She had shared the notebook to Minato and Kushina, and together they had waited for Naruto.

Poor Naruto, the minute he had come in and saw her, he ran. Tsunade couldn’t decide if that was a good thing or bad. He could run exactly to the person she thinks he should seek help from.

He could run into an enemy.

Hell. Anyone could be the enemy, with the right information.

…..

‘ _To whomever answers the call,_

_I am Sasuke Uchiha, second son of the clan leader of the Uchiha of the Six Paths, Fugaku Uchiha._

_I am the soul-bearer of the third element, the moon. I am Himura._

_Hagoromo wished to destroy his brother and was unsuccessful in his deceit. Ninshu has been desecrated since his betrayal to the Other Half and it is my duty as the soul-bearer to defeat the usurper. The Great Mother is angry at her children and she punishes us for our evil ways._

_I will purge Ninshu of the usurper and his clan and all who defend Hagoromo’s soul-bearer. The Uzumaki teach their clan blasphemy and lies._

_Hagoromo traps me in his body. He has taken my life away from me and for that I will not forgive him._

_In the name of Uchiha. I, Sasuke, will end the Curse of Hagoromo once and for all.’_

…..

He slipped into consciousness much like the moon rises at dusk; a gradual, steady, appearance. Shikamaru observed it in the way the body went from laying in a heap to a slow straightening of its spine, in the subconscious way muscles tighten when one becomes cognizant of their surroundings. Naruto’s body sat up straight, holding itself in a way that Shikamaru had never seen the bearer of the sun mark do before. His face, which had been loosely facing towards the heavens, shifted and lolled to the side before continuing its clockwise roll, stopping chin to chest. Mouth changed from slack to straight.

"Nara." Sasuke acknowledged the other boy.

"Huh. Even the voice changes. Interesting." Shikamaru made no attempt to hide his curiosity, openly looking Sasuke up and down. Sasuke used the same slow glide to lift his head up, his eyes opened and glaring. A twitch was the only reaction that slipped through before Shikamaru heaved a massive sigh and promptly laid back, lounging like a cat, closing his eyes.

"Man, that's just..." he flicks his wrist around in the air, "weird."

Sasuke knew what he meant but didn't allow his glare to falter. He had been raised around the Nara boy, both their clans having resided in Konoha since the beginning of the Six Paths, but it did little to comfort him. This was the first time Sasuke had ever came too with someone else in the room, much less someone who he actually knew, who was smart enough (gifted enough) to recognize him in his current state. He couldn't decide if it was anticipation or dread welling up in his chest. How much did the Nara know? Did he answer the call? How did he know the code?

"Tell me about the Hagoromo incarnate. Keep it short, I never hold control long." Sasuke demanded.

Shikamaru sucked his teeth but didn't open his eyes. He took a moment before he began. "Why would I lead one of the Great Mother's children to his death?"

"My bad," Sasuke sighs and within a second's span of time Sasuke is in Shikamaru's face, red eyes blazing, a fierce grip on Shikamaru’s collar. In the distance Shikamaru can hear the jar that had been dropped to Naruto’s feet get kicked away in the sudden movement by Sasuke. "You tell me and I will make sure the Nara are not killed when the Uchiha cleanse this Godforsaken rock. Or you can refuse, and I will make you show me and then I will torture you before I kill you.”

The wheel in Sasuke’s red eye rolled, adding a sinister effect to his threat. What was his luck and getting glared at by two sharingans in the same week? Nara knew Sasuke was receiving all possible strains of destiny while looking through those eyes. Which one would be choose?

Shikamaru kept his eye lowered to the boy’s mouth. He decided to prompt the other boy instead. “Interesting. I didn’t realize a rinnegan could turn into a sharingan.” The Hyuuga will kill all of the Descendants if they find this out, he added to himself.

Sasuke jerked Shikamaru and Shikamaru could hear his measured yet angry breathing. It struck him how scared Sasuke was. Naruto had been almost despondent, and definitely reluctant, in his interactions. Parts of Naruto wanted to care but the resignation to his position had been palatable in his interactions since Shikamaru had first observed him through the shadows long before he had approached the kid. Sasuke, on the other hand, was terrified and showing a passionate interest in his disposition. Sasuke had always been passionate per say, but only ever showed it in measured ways. He was reserved to the point that most people thought he didn’t care, but those who knew him knew he cared, a lot. He just hid how much he actually cared. Shikamaru had been around Sasuke much longer than Naruto so he had hesitated to bank on this idea, but all other options lead him towards angering the already wound-tight boy. Shikamaru had seen Sasuke release his anger before and he would always opt-out on that when he could. The Nara really were not the fighting type.

Time to gamble. He had wanted to tell Naruto and have Naruto handle the rest, but this was the way the cards had drawn. Shikamaru looked up, directly into Sasuke’s sharingan, while simultaneously walling off his connection to his clan. He showed him what had been discussed with Itachi, and more.


End file.
